Publishing with GUP

Publishing with Georgetown University Press

Georgetown University Press publishes peer-reviewed works of academic distinction, with exceptional editorial and production quality, in five subjects: bioethics; international affairs; languages; political science, public policy, & public management; and religion & ethics.

Submitting a Proposal

If you have a project that you are interested in publishing with Georgetown University Press, you must first submit a proposal. Please check with us before sending a complete manuscript, since unsolicited submissions are not returned. We do not publish poetry, fiction, memoirs, or children's books, nor do we publish Festschriften or unrevised dissertations. A typical proposal includes a cover letter and prospectus. For more detailed information on submitting a proposal, click here.

Peer Review

Once your proposal is received, an acquisitions editor may request a full manuscript or available chapters to send out for peer review. Scholars and experts in your field will be carefully selected to read and comment on your work. Georgetown University Press handles all aspects of the peer-review process. Once the peer reviews have been received by the editor, he or she will contact you to discuss the comments, suggest revisions, and determine next steps.

Contracting with the Press

If your manuscript passes peer review and is approved by the press publishing committee, you will receive a contract. The contract is a legally binding agreement between you and the press and outlines details such as draft deadlines, word count or page count requirements, copyright ownership, and more. If your manuscript is an edited volume, each contributor in the volume will be sent a contributor’s agreement to sign and return to the press.

Finished Manuscript

You will likely spend a few months revising and putting the finishing touches on your manuscript. When submitting your final manuscript, we ask that you properly format your manuscript and organize the pieces of the manuscript correctly. We are pleased to provide you with the submission guidelines and a checklist in order to ensure that your manuscript moves through our production process as smoothly as possible. Click here to view the Author Guidelines.

Transmittal/Launch

Once your final manuscript is received and approved by the acquisitions editor and, when applicable, the series editor(s), the acquisitions editor will “transmit” the project to other departments at the press at a formal launch meeting. This includes the marketing department and our editorial and production department. At this meeting, we will finalize the title, pricing, binding, print runs, and other details of your project.

The Production Process

After transmittal your manuscript will enter the production process. The production process for language textbooks and those with related multimedia can differ from what we describe here. (See the section below for more details.) Some of the steps in this process will have strict deadlines for you so that we can meet the publication date announced for your book. Throughout this process you’ll be working directly with our editorial and production department. They will answer your questions about the process and keep you informed about the schedule.

After a thorough precopyedit analysis is completed by the editorial and production department, they will send the manuscript to a copyeditor. This is often the longest stage of the production process, depending on the availability of a suitable copyeditor and the amount of editing that is needed. After the copyediting has been done, we’ll ask you to review it in detail and answer each and every one of the copyeditor’s questions. Also, if you want to make any changes, now is your best and last chance to do so.

After the manuscript has been cleaned up to incorporate the changes from the editing process, it will be sent to a compositor for typesetting. We will send you one set of page proofs for proofreading. At this point however, you should make minor changes of fact only. A word-for-word check is not necessary from you because a professional proofreader is also checking the proofs for typos and errors. Stylistic changes or significant additions of new material are extremely expensive. Typesetting rates vary but most are based on each affected line, not just the one containing the insertion. Please keep this in mind as you determine the extent of changes that you think are necessary in page proof stage. Extensive text changes at this stage can also delay publication of your book.

After all corrections have been made to the page proofs, we will have the index prepared. We will send it to you to review. This step is usually on a very tight deadline.

During this editorial process, the cover for your book is also being designed. We work with many outstanding freelance designers to create fresh, high-impact covers for our books. Our director and marketing & sales director have final approvals on all covers. If you have ideas about images or concepts to pursue/avoid for the cover of your book, please discuss them with your editor prior to the transmittal stage. Our marketing department will collect endorsements for your book and develop any copy that should appear on the back cover or dustjacket of your book.

Once your book has been indexed and the cover is finished, it will be sent to a printer where it will be printed and bound. After the book is finished it will ship to our warehouse and begin shipping out from there to customers.

Language Textbooks

The development and production process for language textbooks can be slightly different from more traditional scholarly books. These books often include art, audio and/or video components, and, increasingly, related multimedia, which have different production needs and requirements. The book itself will follow a similar path to the one described above. You will work closely with your acquisitions editor on the schedule for any related audio, video, or multimedia components. Please check with your editor before completing any recording, filming, or programming, as these elements are closely integrated with the book manuscript and require close coordination. Check with your acquisitions editor for your specific schedule and process.

Marketing

Around the time your book is transmitted, the marketing department will ask you to complete a Marketing Questionnaire about the distinguishing features and potential markets for your book. This is the time for you to make specific suggestions about marketing your book, before budgets and schedules are finalized. The marketing department will also ask you to review for accuracy a description of your book that will be used for cover copy and for sales materials.

Your book will first be announced in our seasonal catalog. We distribute approximately 18,000 copies of the seasonal catalog to U.S. two- and four-year college libraries, larger public libraries, theological and seminary libraries, faculty library advisors, book wholesalers, college and independent bookstores, and chains in the U.S. and abroad, GU Press's institutional and individual buyers in the U.S. and abroad, and various review media. In addition, the catalog is the most basic tool that our sales reps use when calling on bookstores.

Your book will be advertised in appropriate scholarly journals and periodicals and to the bookstore and library markets. It is also likely to be included in one or more of our subject catalogs, mailers, or flyers that we distribute to professionals in particular fields. We are happy to provide flyers to authors to use in their own promotions as well. Please keep the marketing department apprised of any conferences you may be attending, especially if you are presenting.

Your book will be displayed at a number of exhibits at professional and academic meetings. For a full list of the conferences we attend regularly, visit our Conferences and Exhibits page.

Our publicist will send out review copies of your book to appropriate journals and periodicals in your field and works with you to ensure we hit the best potential review outlets.

Your book will be featured on our website and, when the book is released, we will send an email announcement and discount offer to our subscriber list.

Georgetown University Press has ten sales reps in the United States, all of whom make regular visits to independent and chain bookstores. They all have extensive experience selling both university press and trade titles in the most significant book-buying territories in the country.

Outside the U.S., we are distributed in Canada by Scholarly Book Services and in Japan and Korea by United Publishers Services, Ltd. We have six sales representatives covering the United Kingdom, Europe, North Africa, and the Near and Middle East. To support these sales we stock our books in a warehouse in England. Our books are distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Footprint Books.

The press has an active rights program, meaning that your book will be presented to English-language publishers in the U.K. and foreign-language publishers in Europe and Asia when a press representative attends the annual Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany. These publishers will have the option of publishing various editions in various languages. You would receive royalties on sales of these editions.

Royalties

Georgetown University Press distributes author royalties approximately 60 days after the end of its fiscal year around September 30.

To make this payment process go more smoothly, each year our authors must complete the proper tax forms. For tax forms, please click here.

If you are a Georgetown University Press author or editor, it is important that the press has your current home address on file. If you have moved in the past year, please let us know by emailing gupress@georgetown.edu.